Chapter 7: Drastic Measures

On Thursday I returned home to my strained marriage wondering if I was going to have to take Jim's advice and tell Sonya I wanted a divorce. The more I thought about it the more I thought I would not be able to do it.

Another week went by and nothing had changed. As far as I knew Sonya hadn't had any contact with the asshole and I didn't question her about him. In some ways things between us were good. We talked and made love and carried on as though nothing was wrong but the problem was always on my mind.

One evening as we were watching television I decided to approach Sonya on the subject of marriage counseling.

"I was thinking that maybe we should try marriage counseling. What do you think?" I said.

"You really want to do that?" She said. "I've thought about it myself. It might help us."

For the first time since I got home from Dallas and caught Sonya with the asshole I felt like something good was about to happen.

"But there is no way I am going to marriage counseling if you are going to tell some stranger about what happened the night of our party," she said. "If you want to talk about us that would be okay but I don't want some therapist thinking I am some kind of a slut. I'm not like that and you know it."

I was starting to get angry but I kept my emotions under control.

"It wouldn't do any good to go to a marriage counselor if we are not going to be open and frank about our problems," I said. "It would be a waste of time."

"Well then I am not going," she said. "I am not going to sit there and let you bad mouth me in front of some stranger."

That ended that conversation and my hope of getting Sonya to agree to counseling. I had already decided that I wasn't going to tell her I wanted a divorce in an attempt to get her to agree to counseling so I was just going to have to weather the storm and hope we could survive it.

The following Monday evening Sonya told me that Mr. Stanley was throwing one of his cocktail parties at the Marriott Hotel on Saturday night. This was the first time since I had met Sonya that I didn't want to go to one of Mr. Stanley's parties. I didn't tell Sonya because I didn't want to have to explain. I just kept quiet while Sonya talked about needing a new dress for the party.

On Wednesday night I came home to an empty house. When Sonya wasn't home a half hour later I began to worry and as the hour grew later I began to get angry. At 7:30 I finally heard the garage door opening. I had to take several deep breaths to calm myself before Sonya came into the house. I was determined to give her a chance to explain why she was late before I said anything and it was a good thing I did.

Sonya came into the kitchen carrying bags from one of the better department stores in the area. It was at that moment that I remembered that Sonya had said she was going shopping for a dress after work.

"Wait till you see the great dress I got for the party," she said. It was on sale too."

Sonya was too busy showing off her purchases to notice the look of relief that I was sure would be obvious to anyone looking at me.

On Saturday morning I took Sonya's car to get an oil change and to run some errands. I didn't notice until I got to the service station that Sonya had left her cell phone in the car. When the oil change was complete and I got back into the car I noticed that the light on the phone was blinking. When I looked at the display the message read 'One missed call' and the voice mail indicator was also on. When I checked the missed call I didn't recognize the number so I dialed her voice mail and listened to the message.

"Sonya, Tony. Just want to check and see if your husband was coming to the party with you. I hope not. Even if he is maybe we can sneak off for a little fun when he's not looking. You know you want it babe. See ya tonight."

I was seething with anger. If I had been able to get my hands on the asshole at that moment I would have killed him. As I went about finishing up my errands I tried to decide what I should do about Kaplan. I was in a drug store to pick up a prescription for my allergies when I saw something that gave me an idea. I was just angry to do something drastic and this idea was very drastic.

When I got home I didn't say anything to Sonya about the voice mail message Kaplan left her. For the rest of the afternoon I avoided Sonya as much as possible because I was just too angry to pretend nothing was wrong. I found myself taking nips from my bottle of bourbon all afternoon.